


Not All That Dwells in Darkness

by MoiraColleen



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Chance Meetings, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Multi, Uncomfortably Insightful
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 11:57:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1778206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoiraColleen/pseuds/MoiraColleen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A chance encounter with the boogeyman yields less-than-welcome results for both parties.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not All That Dwells in Darkness

Though patches of light still gleamed here and there on the water’s surface, the winter sun already lay low on the horizon, casting most of the lake into deepening shadow. The lake was a man-made reservoir along a winding river bed, lowered for the season to control flooding downstream, and the exposed stumps of long-dead trees clung like tentacle creatures from another world to the water-scoured rocks along the shoreline. Not long before, a small boy had shivered at the sight of the twisted root systems. He’d kept close to his grandfather, though, and the sun was still high then in any case. Most of the other people who had come to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather had been adults—no use at all to the unseen observer in the shadows of the cracked cliffs.

Unseen. That was at the heart of it all. That was what drove him to prowl this rocky bank even though he knew from the start it would only be an exercise in frustration. The eerie unloving forest and the ruins of submerged houses that dotted the lakebed had such potential to excite the imagination, but an adult’s imagination didn’t lead readily to belief.

The last of the day-trippers left the lake shore. The watcher sighed and turned to leave as well, but paused at the sound of a voice from the nearby parking lot.

“And they tell me that the bunyip’s now a thousand years old. So you better come home quickly, and you better hide very soon…”

A faint smile pulled at his lips. He knew this song. It and the images that accompanied it had kept no few children watching the shadows for years. As the song continued, he willed those shadows to take him near the singer, to hear more clearly. The singer was a woman of indeterminate age dressed in a light blue sweat suit. A light helmet hung from her arm, and as she sang she strapped a bicycle to a travelling rack on the back of a car. The watcher took only a cursory note of her appearance. His attention was preoccupied by the song and the pleasing memories it conjured. If the voice was somewhat out of practice, the singer did not altogether lack for skill, seeming to enjoy setting the echoes singing along with her.

“Or the bunyip’s going to get you in the bunyip moon. In the moon…” The final refrain faded eerily into silence.  
“I don’t suppose you’d consider singing that for a younger audience now and then,” the watcher muttered.

“I’m sorry. Did you say something?”

The watcher turned sharply to face the woman. To his astonishment, her eyes were unmistakably focused on him.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been around a decade since I wrote anything, so forgive me if I'm a bit rusty. A work in an original fantasy world is occupying most of my attention, so updates are likely to be sporadic, but this story won't entirely leave me alone until it's finished... however long that takes. Reviews/feedback of all kinds are welcome, the more detailed, the better.


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